------------------------------------------2/04 - Destin writes ...Mr. Niednagel -Should Christians believe the Law of Conservation of Energy and Mass? I recently read some of Dan Brown's book (he wrote The Da Vince Code too), Angels and Demons. The book talked about matter and antimatter both, and it said that the two cancel each other out when they come in contact with one another.
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Thanks for the question. For those unaware, the Law of Conservation of Mass/Energy states that mass and energy in the universe can neither be created nor destroyed. This fundamental law, of course, is consistent with Genesis, as everything in the universe was finished after six days.

I'm not exactly sure if I fully understand your question, Destin, or at least with regards to Dan Brown's position. From what I understand, he's saying that antimatter (nothing) and matter cancel out each other. What exactly is the significance of this? Is he saying that matter is still being created now, or that matter once was created from nothing at the beginning of time? Matter has never been created from non-matter either in a lab or in nature.

As far as matter coming from nothing, theories exist, but nothing more. Many astronomers postulate that an explosion of highly dense matter was the beginning of all space and time billions of years ago. This idea was mockingly called the 'big bang' by Sir Fred Hoyle in his 1950 BBC radio series, The Nature of the Universe, who considered the idea preposterous. In 1994 he wrote, "Big-Bang cosmology refers to an epoch that cannot be reached by any form of astronomy, and, in more than two decades, it has not produced a single successful prediction." Mind you, Hoyle was no creationist.

In any case, I do understand the basics of the theory that antimatter is composed of massive photons, whilst ordinary matter is composed of massive photon holes, and that this might be viewed as a kind of unification of photons. As of now, it's a great deal of speculation and imagination, and so I will refrain from further comment.

One thing is certain, as stated before. Matter has never been seen to create itself, nor has it ever been destroyed. Therefore, yes, Christians should believe in the Law.
Thanks for writing,

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